Xavante phonology
The phonology of Xavante is described by McLeod (1974). Vowels Xavante has nine vowel qualities, long and short. Four occur nasalized, long and short. is when long and when short. is raised after in a non-initial syllable. is a central vowel. It is a rounded in certain stylistic conventions. is a mid vowel when long, and a more open when short. is when long and or when short. and do not vary much. is written in the orthography. Consonants Xavante has ten consonants, . They are realized as, (Placement is approximate; varies between obstruent and sonorant, alveolar and palatal.) Xavante is highly unusual in lacking velar consonants, except for the labio-velar approximant . At a phonemic level, it arguably also lacks nasal consonants, which is less unusual in the Amazon. The language however has a high degree of allophony, and nasal stops appear before nasal vowels.It can be argued either that these are nasalized allophones of the voiced obstruents, that is, that or is pronounced before , or that the voiced obstruents are denasalized allophones of nasal stops before oral vowels, with pronounced or before . The key point is that nasality is determined by the vowels, not by the consonants. Allophony With so few phonemic contrasts, Xavante allows wide latitude in allophones of its consonants. * P''' and '''T: are aspirated as syllable onsets (at the beginning of a word, between vowels, or before /r/), and unreleased as syllable codas (at the end of a word or before a consonant other than /r/). * C': freely varies among as an onset, and as a coda (only preceding another , as ). * '’: is a glottal stop . * B''': In a C or CC syllable onset before an oral vowel, is pronounced as a plain voiced stop at the beginning of a phonological word, and as either or as a prenasalized voiced stop in the middle of a word. Before nasal vowels, as C or CC, it is pronounced . :As a syllable coda, is pronounced before regardless of the following vowel's nasality, and optionally also as before the oral allophones of the other voiced obstruents, and : or . It is before .All voiced obstruents are presumably nasalized before all nasal allophones, though is the only sequence that is attested. * '''D: In a syllable onset before an oral vowel, is pronounced either as a plain voiced stop or as prenasalized voiced stop . Unlike , it may be prenasalized at the beginning of a phonological word, not just as a syllable onset. Before a nasal vowel, it is pronounced . :As a syllable coda, is pronounced before the oral allophone of a consonant, and as before a nasal consonant. * J': In a syllable onset before an oral vowel, is pronounced , in free variation. Before a nasal vowel, it is pronounced . :As a syllable coda, is generally pronounced , and is nasalized to or ''after a nasal vowel.It is not yet clear when it is and when . It is also nasalized to before a prenasalized stop allophone. Between oral vowels, the sequence optionally takes an epenthetic : or . When is followed by an , a nasalized epenthetic schwa separates them. * '''R: is an alveolar flap, , which is nasalized between nasal vowels. * W': is similar to English ''w, but not rounded before the vowel .As McLeod & Mitchell (2003:11) describe it, :antes da letra ‘i’ é pronunciado como o ‘w’ inglês, sem arredondamento dos lábios e com um pouco de fricção. Em outros ambientes não há fricção e os lábios se arredondam mais :"before the letter 'i' it's pronounced as the English 'w', without rounding of the lips and with a bit of friction. In other environments it doesn't have friction and the lips are more rounded" This would appear to mean that is a more-or-less typical labio-velar approximant in most situations, with an unrounded semi-fricative allophone, approximately , before the vowel , though possibly a labially compressed velar in that environment. McLeod (1974:4) had covered only the unrounded allophone: :O fonema /w/ é um vocóide oral assilábico, não-arredondado posterior fechado alto sonoro. :"The phoneme is an oral semivowel, unrounded high back and voiced." * '''H: has no place of articulation, but is a voiceless transition between vowels. Vowels do not become nasalized because of nasalized consonants, so the only consonants that become nasal are those in a cluster preceding a nasal vowel (and coda after a nasal vowel); a preceding oral vowel blocks the nasality from spreading to preceding syllables. Phonotactics Xavante syllables are of the forms CV, CCV, CVC, CCVC, CV:, and CCV:; that is, all syllables begin with a consonant, sometimes two; they may optionally either end with a consonant or have a long vowel. Although a syllable may end in a consonant, a phonological word may not, apart from a few cases of word-final . The attested initial CC consonant clusters are: : . All seven obstruents occur in final position, but in a maximal CCVC syllable only are attested. Across two syllables, the following CC sequences are attested: : : : : : : : . There are also CCC sequences such as (coda followed by onset ). The vowels and are rare, and not attested in maximal CCVC syllables. References